Deflocked Buttons

Deflocking a G1 so-soft pony is not a task that should be undertaken lightly.  There's not many of these ponies with excellent flocking around, few enough that look good on display in spite of a few rubs.  I don't believe in deflocking unless the flocking is really in bad shape, mostly missing, or otherwise badly damaged.

A selection of So-Softs

Although I'm not a big fan of deflocking so-soft ponies, they look pretty awful when they're missing half their fluff.  This is the condition poor Buttons was in when she came to me:

I suppose restoration might be possible, but matching the texture and consistency of the original flocking, not to mention matching up the line of the original with the new, would be pretty difficult.  In my opinion, she'd look better deflocked at this point.

I used rubbing alcohol and acetone (NOT at the same time!) to remove the glue holding the flocking on.  Naturally, the acetone would have also removed her paint, so I steered clear of the symbols, eyes, and blush with the acetone.  Instead, I used rubbing alcohol and a blunt knife (not a knife that would cut, more of a spreader) to scrape away the glue in those sections.  The rubbing alcohol won't damage the paint (at least, not in small quantities and short intervals) and it does wonders for getting rid of the glue.

I also added an extra step with Buttons.  Since she wasn't in her original state anyway, I decided to alter her symbol so she looks more like the UK Buttons (and the cartoon version as well).  She's wearing her blue stars now, which she was missing in the so-soft version.  Finally, I marked the bottom of her feet to show she'd been deflocked and altered.  I'm a firm believer in doing this for any pony that's been altered (rehaired, touched up, etc.) so that, if ever they leave my hands, there's no question that a customizer worked on them.

Elf